Causing Waves
by ExplosiveRanga95
Summary: Grief was an old friend of Daniel Jackson’s. And curiosity was an old friend of Janet’s. She had to know about her life here, in this reality. AN: Missing Scene from Ripple Effect! Janet talks to Daniel and tells him all that he's missing in his Reality.


**Authors Notes** : This is a re-post/ fix up of a fic I wrote about a million years ago. Missing scene from Ripple Effect.

Give it some love because Danny needs all the love he can get!

I've been re-watching the show and also re-listening to the audio books so this fic was brought back to life by the audio story, 'Gift of the God's' in which Daniel wakes up and watches the Alternate Reality him get killed~ 

**-Causing Waves-**

"I can't believe this is happening. You're actually alive." Daniel whispered.

Teal'c left the room in search of General Landry, leaving Daniel and Janet staring at each other, pain written all over the Archaeologist's face, and he had to stop himself from reaching across the table to touch her and running his fingers through her hair – even after so long, he could remember the smell of her shampoo. Cassie still used it, smelt of it every time she visited but Daniel couldn't bring himself to remember the name of it.

It was silly and impossible, but he almost thought he could smell it now.

"I am alive, Daniel…" Her fingers twitched and she sighed, grimacing, "In my reality anyway… A lot is different here than back home." She observed, and watched as Daniel's mind changed topics, as she had intended it to.

In her Universe, Daniel was hers. She had watched him struggle through the loss of Sha're, had comforted and consoled him and years later, he had asked for her hand in marriage. He hadn't dealt well with his first wife's death… Janet couldn't imagine what her Daniel would do if he lost another.

"Oh, yeah," Daniel said, temporarily distracted, "Jack was promoted to General, as you already know, and then he was sent to work in the Pentagon. Uh, Sam was engaged, but that didn't work out…" The man shrugged, taking his glasses off to wipe the lenses. "We have a new member of our team, Colonel Mitchell. And uh, Selmak died last year, which was difficult on Sam." Daniel frowned. "Old age, I think."

"What about Cassie?" It was all she could think about. "How did she cope with my…death? God, it's weird saying that."

Daniel smiled, thinking of the strong young woman that she had grown up to be.

"She is a fighter, I'll give her that. She enrolled in College a few months after the incident, studying medicine just like you."

Janet took a moment, hands steepled in front of her face, warm brown eyes focused on Daniel's hands that sat clenched atop the table. No ring, she noticed.

Daniel was silent for a moment as he watched her. It would be a lot to take in.

"Cassie took it hard. She misses you, Janet." There was something in his next words that when Janet looked up, she almost thought she had imagined it. "We all do."

Cassie had lost her mother in this reality.

Again.

God, if this was the version of Earth where the Ori didn't try to wipe them out with a plague, Janet still wasn't sure she wanted it.

Selfish, maybe, but she would never wish that kind of pain on her friends…especially not her daughter.

Janet knew that Daniel would have taken care of Cassie. He thought of her as a daughter, whether he and Janet were in a relationship or not.

The woman smiled, despite her grief for her friends and daughter and touched Daniel's hand gently.

"I'm sure you took good care of her."

Daniel smiled back at her, genuine and warm but still, his chest felt like he'd been hit with a Zat.

It was the same feeling he had when Sha're had been taken.

Grief was an old friend of Daniel Jackson's.

And curiosity was an old friend of Janet's. She had to know about her life here, in this reality.

Obviously, it wasn't too different. She'd still left her ex-husband and joined the Air Force.

She'd still saved hundreds of lives, on earth, in the SGC and off-world too, apparently.

She still had a daughter that she loved very much, and she still had friends who loved her back.

But, before she died, did she still have someone to go home to at night? Were her Sunday mornings spent with coffee too strong and cuddles too warm? Did she and Daniel still have that stupid ritual of going bowling on every anniversary because when Cassie had set them up as a 16-year-old, she had taken them there for their first date?

Was Daniel missing her as much as he had missed Sha're?

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Both spoke at the same time, goofy smiles erupting on their faces. Finishing each other's sentences, even after all this time.

"You first," Daniel said with a crooked grin.

Janet took a deep breath, letting her hands come back to rest in front of her as her eyes flickered across his tired face.

"I'm curious," she started, "In my reality, you and I are married. What about in this one? Were you and I…you know?"

Daniel took a sharp intake of breath, searching Janet's face. Should he lie to her? Tell her that no, they weren't together? Or tell her the truth that, in fact, they had been an item before she was…

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment and focused on his breathing. What would happen then, if he told her that they had been together? He couldn't have her now, not like this. She was his Janet in another life.

She wasn't his Janet.

Thinking about the politics of it all gave him a headache (or that could have been the 3 cups of coffee earlier) and he pulled his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Daniel? I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable…"Janet frowned, watching him.

"We were together. You and I…we'd only been dating for a few months and it was hard to get our time off synchronised but…yeah," A sad smile flickered across his lips, "A lot of the time, we just went bowling."

Both Daniel and Janet couldn't help but notice that his voice was quivering as he spoke.

The world can be so cruel, Janet concluded as she rounded the table, and held him. Daniel clung to her, trying so hard to be strong, to hold back the grief that never really went away but with her vanilla shampoo right there, he wasn't sure he was ever going to be able to let go.

It had been so long since he held her, his lover, his Janet, even if this wasn't his Janet. It felt so good to be with her again.

Slowly, after a few silent moments, they pulled away from each other, Daniel wiping the tears from his face, Janet staying right by his side, armed already with tissues. He took them gratefully, smiling a little.

"So, we're married huh?" He cleared his throat and stuffed the tissues into his pocket. "Any kids?"

Janet smiled, her eyes sparkling with pride as she spoke, sitting them back down at the table. This time, her chair was beside his and their knees brushed as she leaned forward.

"We have a boy. Melbourne. He turned two, just before Sam took maternity leave."

There was that feeling in his chest again, for a son that he would never have.

Named after his father, none the less.

He looked up quickly, glad for the distraction so he didn't have to reach for the tissues again.

"Wait, you said Sam's on maternity leave?" Daniel raised an eyebrow at her. "To whom?"

Janet chuckled. "Who do you possibly think it is, Daniel?"

"Pete?" This received him a glare from Janet. "Okay, good, not Pete…then…Jack?"

Janet smiled even wider and Daniel was still laughing at the idea when Teal'c came back a few moments later.

DJDJDJDJDJDJ

Sam had figured it out. She always did. Sam had figured out a way to get everyone-all of the SG-1's- back to their realities.

Daniel should have been celebrating.

Instead, he was moping around the SGC, like a little-lost puppy. Janet's team was the last to leave, which meant that he got to spend more time with her, but she was still leaving.

Their reality would go back to how it was supposed to be.

Except that Janet would be gone and he didn't accept that that was how his reality was supposed to be.

Aimlessly, Daniel wondered around the SGC, trying to avoid saying goodbye to her, trying to avoid anything really, that made him think about her, living a happy life with a man that wasn't him…well, it was but…it wasn't.

There was that headache again.

He rounded a corner, determined to head to the commissary for more coffee when he came face to face with himself. Literally. The alternate Daniel and Janet were walking hand in hand, talking in hushed tones. On seeing Daniel, he let go of Janet's hand and smiled.

"Oh, hi! We were just looking for you."

Daniel - the real one - frowned.

"You were? Uh, why?"

Janet stepped forward, slipping a locket out of her pocket – she held it out to him and he glanced between it and her face.

"We wanted to give you this and you can say no but… well, it's a picture of Mel. Your son…" She looked between her Daniel and the real Daniel. "Our son."

She lay it in Daniels' hand, and he blinked behind his oversized glasses.

"I can't take this. This is your child. This-this is yours."

"Sure, yeah, but technically, he's yours as well," The Alternate Daniel stated, "I get a headache thinking about all the pronouns and science-y things but… Mel's your son too. Doesn't mean you should miss out just because the universe hates us most of the time."

The men looked at each other, at themselves, and there are some things that only you can understand about yourself. The other him knew him as well as he did. He knew what he needed. And if he couldn't have Janet, he could at least have the memories.

That's all any of them are in the end, anyway. Memories and 'what if's'. Daniel was grateful he even got this little bit of time with Janet.

"Thank you," He said finally, fingers closing around the locket. "I mean it."

The pair both smiled at him, warm and genuine and was it weird to want to suddenly hug yourself?

The other Daniel seemed to read this and laughed gently as Janet stepped forward and pressed her warm, soft lips to his cheek.

Before Daniel could make a fool of himself and have to reach for the tissues again, General Landry's voice boomed over the intercom.

It was time for the last alternate team to go home.

DJDJDJDJDJDJ

"Out of curiosity, where am I?" Sam asked, and Janet grinned at her friend, pulling her away from Martouf.

"Maternity leave."

She pulled her friend into an embrace, laughing at the dumbstruck look on her face but over Sam's shoulder, Daniel and Janet shared an amused smile.

Maybe one day Sam and Jack would get their happy ending too.

-FIN-


End file.
